Or what?
Science 4 February 2011:
Vol. 331 no. 6017 pp. 555-561
DOI: 10.1126/science.1197761
RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Ecoresponsive Genome of Daphnia pulex
John K. Colbourne et al
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jcolbour@indiana.eduWe describe the draft genome of the microcrustacean Daphnia pulex, which is only 200 megabases and contains at least 30,907 genes. The high gene count is a consequence of an elevated rate of gene duplication resulting in tandem gene clusters. More than a third of Daphnia’s genes have no detectable homologs in any other available proteome, and the most amplified gene families are specific to the Daphnia lineage. The coexpansion of gene families interacting within metabolic pathways suggests that the maintenance of duplicated genes is not random, and the analysis of gene expression under different environmental conditions reveals that numerous paralogs acquire divergent expression patterns soon after duplication. Daphnia-specific genes, including many additional loci within sequenced regions that are otherwise devoid of annotations, are the most responsive genes to ecological challenges.
I always thought Lamarckism (environment can change genes) was underrated, just because it isn’t Darwinism. Which is funny, given that Darwin was not above a bit of Lamarckism himself.
What put me onto that was the certainty with which we were brainwashed otherwise in school: Environment, we were told, does NOT affect genes. Why was it so important to exorcise the ghost of Lamarck?